We've appointed Leann Hearne as our new chair, succeeding Ingrid Fife after five years in the role.
Leann brings a wealth of housing experience, including her previous role as Chief Executive of Livv Housing Group. She's also served on our board for the past five years and has chaired our Homes and Places Committee since 2023.
She takes on the role as we continue to invest in existing homes, improve services for customers and deliver more affordable, energy-efficient homes across Yorkshire, with plans to invest nearly £1bn in homes and communities across the region over the next decade.
Our CEO Nick Atkin said: "I'd like to thank Ingrid for the enormous contribution she has made to Yorkshire Housing over the past five years.
“We've achieved a huge amount together during that time, from improving outcomes for customers to achieving our strongest-ever regulatory ratings, and Ingrid has been a key part of our success. She’s been so good we've even considered giving her honorary Yorkshire status – and there’s no higher accolade than that!
“I'm equally delighted to welcome Leann as our new chair. She knows Yorkshire Housing incredibly well, shares our ambition for our customers and communities, and will bring a wide range of valuable experience as we look to the future."
Leann added: "Yorkshire Housing holds a special place for me. After five years on the board and three years leading the Homes and Places Committee, I've seen first-hand the difference this organisation makes to people's lives, and how its aspiration drives it to be even better.
“Becoming chair is a real honour, and I'm genuinely excited about what we can achieve together for our customers."
Leann succeeds Ingrid Fife, who helped lead Yorkshire Housing through a period of significant change, including improving customer services, securing funding to build thousands of new homes and delivering our business strategy.
Ingrid said: "I have been so lucky to have worked alongside an exceptionally talented team of executives and board members at Yorkshire Housing. We have been ambitious in transforming the way we deliver our customer services and in working with local partners to continue delivering more new homes.
“I have been pleased to see our customer experience improving year on year and especially proud that, following inspection, we achieved a C1 grading this year, alongside affirmation of our strong governance and financial viability through our G1 and V2 ratings.
“Yorkshire Housing is a special place to work and its ambitious culture will continue to deliver for Yorkshire."
We're also welcoming two new board members, David Manser and David Done, alongside Anees Iqbal, who joins as Yorkshire Housing's first Board Trainee through the Housing Diversity Network Board Trainee Programme.
Together, they bring a mix of housing, customer and commercial experience to our board, while helping us develop the next generation of diverse board talent.